Visitors look at Ford models in Guangzhou. Ford sold 75,990 vehicles in China in January, the firm said in a statement yesterday.

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Reuters/Shanghai

Ford Motor Co said yesterday its January vehicle sales in China dropped by a sharp 18% versus a year ago, marking a difficult start to 2018 for the US carmaker that is struggling to revive its business in the world’s biggest auto market.The bleak number underscores Ford’s China woes as it grapples not only with falling sales at a time when rivals are picking up steam, but also with the abrupt departure of its China chief last month who was expected to help drive growth.Ford sold 75,990 vehicles in the market in January, the firm said in a statement, far slower growth than the wider China auto market which was up 11.6% for the month, an industry association said yesterday.Over the same period, General Motors Co bagged a sales gain of 14.5%, while Toyota Motor Corp took home a 24.5% rise.Last year, Ford’s China sales slid 6%, compared with a 3% rise for the industry overall.Peter Fleet, Ford’s Asia-Pacific and China chief, blamed the company’s weak sales partially on the relative lack of new and redesigned products in its China market product lineup.“Ahead of its new model launches later in 2018, Changan Ford has rebalanced its compact sedan production and retail volumes to ensure an orderly transition to the new models,” he said.Changan Ford is the US automaker’s joint venture with China’s Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.Ford’s China head, Jason Luo, stepped down in January after only five months at the helm, a sudden resignation that raised questions over how the automaker will best tackle a sales slump in the world’s biggest car market.The Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker is hoping to shift gears in China under chief executive Jim Hackett, with a focus on electric commercial cars and vans, which China is encouraging in a bid to clean up its polluted and congested city centres.“As we reposition our Ford business in China, SUVs (sports utility vehicles), luxury and commercial vehicles are key priorities of our strategy this year,” Fleet said.Foreign automakers are facing fierce competition from Chinese rivals, who are aggressively launching new models to grab market share.A state-backed push towards electric vehicles is also shaking up the market and forcing Ford and others to seek partners and expand local “green” vehicle production.